Working-class subculture

• Working class people have different goals, beliefs and values compared to wider society
• Sugarman identified 4 key features of working class subculture that act as a barrier to educational success;

  • Fatalism
  • Collectivism
  • Immediate gratification
  • Present-time orientation
• Fatalism is a belief in fate that whatever will be, will be and you can do nothing to change your status
• Collectivism is the value of being part of a group more than succeeding as an individual
• Immediate gratification means seeking pleasure now rather than making sacrifices in order to get rewarded further down the line
• Middle class people focus on deferred gratification as making sacrifices now for greater reward later
• Present-time orientation means seeing the present as more important than future
• Middle class culture has future time orientation as they see planning for the future important
• Educational Maintenance Allowance was a way of tackling immediate gratification as in England working class students in college got £30 per fortnight
• Working class children internalise the belief and values of their subculture through primary socialisation
• Middle class values equip children for success